Do you trust corporations? Do you trust politicians? Do you trust the science? Does anyone trust anyone anymore?
In Why Trust Matters: An Economist's Guide to the Ties That Bind Us (Columbia UP, 2021), Professor Ben Ho reveals the surprising importance of trust to how we understand our day-to-day economic lives. Starting with the earliest societies and proceeding through the evolution of the modern economy, he explores its role across an astonishing range of institutions and practices, surveying and synthesizing research across economics, political science, psychology, and other disciplines, and presents his own cutting-edge behavioral economics research on the role of apologies in restoring trust. He argues that we trust far more than we may realize, and that mostly this is a good thing.
Ben Ho is an associate professor at Vassar College. Ho applies economic tools like game theory and experimental design to topics like apologies, trust, identity, inequality and climate change. Before Vassar, he taught MBA students at Cornell, served as lead energy economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and worked/consulted for Morgan Stanley and several tech startups. Professor Ho also teaches at Columbia University where he is a faculty affiliate for the Center for Global Energy Policy. His work has been featured in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Ho holds seven degrees from Stanford and MIT in economics, education, political science, math, computer science and electrical engineering.
Peter Lorentzen is economics professor at the University of San Francisco. He heads USF's Applied Economics Master's program, which focuses on the digital economy. His research is mainly on China's political economy.
Can new language reshape our understanding of the past and expand the possibilities of the future? The Crime Without a Name: Combatting Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in America (Counterpoint, 2021) follows Pitner’s journey to identify and remedy the linguistic void in how we discuss race and culture in the United States. Ethnocide, first coined in 1944 by Jewish exile Raphael Lemkin (who also coined the term “genocide”), describes the systemic erasure of a people’s ancestral culture. For Black Americans, who have endured this atrocity for generations, this erasure dates back to the transatlantic slave trade and reached new resonance in a post-Trump world.
Just as the concept of genocide radically reshaped our perception of human rights in the twentieth century, reframing discussions about race and culture in terms of ethnocide can change the way we understand our diverse and rapidly evolving racial and political climate in a time of increased visibility around police brutality and systemic racism. The Crime Without a Name traces the historical origins of ethnocide in the United States, examines the personal, lived consequences of existing within an ongoing erasure, and offers ways for readers to combat and overcome our country’s ethnocidal foundation.
Jeff Bachman is Senior Lecturer in Human Rights at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election, which could result in getting replaced by a right-wing candidate even if he defeats them by a landslide in vote totals. We spoke with Dan Pfeiffer, a co-host of Pod Save America, about the state of the election, and what voters in California need to know.
The fallout from the shameful last act of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended to Time’s Up, the organization founded by some of Hollywood’s most powerful women with the aim of supporting victims of sexual harassment and assault. Now, former members of Time’s Up and some sexual abuse victims are criticizing the org, saying that it has strayed away from its mission and failed the women they were supposed to help.
And in headlines: two House members take a secret trip to Kabul, OnlyFans reverses its stance on sexually explicit content, and Tony Hawk wants us to buy his blood.
Show Notes:
Since our recording Wednesday night, The Washington Post reports that Time’s Up’s Tina Tchen and Roberta Kaplan had an even greater role in coordinating with Cuomo’s team as far back as December – https://wapo.st/3zou4uI
Dan Pfeiffer’s The Message Box: “Why Dems Have to Win the CA Recall” – https://bit.ly/3ygF780
U.S. Department of Treasury: “Emergency Rental Assistance Program” – https://bit.ly/3zn8Ddt
For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Andrew Cuomo left the New York governor's mansion in disgrace this week after multiple controversies, including his poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as credible allegations that he sexually harassed 11 female state employees.
Cuomo, who was in his third term, resigned before facing near-certain impeachment in the New York State Assembly and a likely humiliating removal after a trial held by members of the state Senate and judiciary.
However, throughout U.S. history, other governors chose to stay and fight—sometimes with success, such as the legendary Louisiana Gov. Huey Long, and sometimes not, such as Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The first governors of Nebraska and Kansas both were impeached. In the 1920s, Oklahoma saw two governors impeached and removed. In Cuomo's state of New York, one governor has been impeached and ousted from office: William Sulzer in 1913.
On today's episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast," Fred Lucas and Jarrett Stepman talk about the nation's 15 impeached governors going back to the very first in 1862, when the country itself was at war.
We also cover these stories:
Efforts continue to ensure no Americans or local allies are left stranded in Afghanistan.
A Supreme Court ruling reinstates tighter controls over immigration at the southern border.
Delta Air Lines announces that it will charge unvaccinated employees an extra $200 per month for health insurance.
Paris Marx is joined by Olivier Jutel to discuss blockchain’s pivot to humanitarianism, the questionable people behind the technology, and how their projects in the Pacific have benefited capitalist and imperial power.
Olivier Jutel is a lecturer at the University of Otago. Follow Olivier on Twitter at @OJutel.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
BCCI was an international bank established in 1972 that was shut down in 1991 for hiding money laundering and other financial crimes.
Hernando De Soto is a Latin American economist who advised Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori and advocates neoliberal policies like land title programs. He now pushes for it to be done through blockchains, and wrote an op-ed with Phil Gramm.
Books mentioned: David Gerard’s “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain” and “Libra Shrugged,” Fred Turner’s “From Counterculture to Cyberculture,” Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s “Empire,” Herbert Schiller’s “Communication and Cultural Domination,” Armand Mattelart’s “The Invention of Communication,” Lilli Irani’s “Chasing Innovation,” and Teresia Teaiwa in “Anglo-American Imperialism and the Pacific.”
Sunflower sea stars play a key role in ocean ecosystems on the West Coast - and they are disappearing in record numbers. Science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce tells us about the plight of the Sunflower sea star and one biologist's unique fight to save them.
Historian Dominic Pacyga shares his encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago history and answers questions about everything from breweries to slaughterhouses. Plus, reporter Monica Eng brings us a story from Ed Kramer, who, as an eighth grader in 1941 took a field trip with his class to visit the stockyards. Yep, Chicago school kids used to do that.
Episode one hundred and thirty-one of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Hear a Symphony” by the Supremes, and is the start of a three-episode look at Motown in 1965. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
